2007年Text 4
It never rains but it pours. Just as bosses and boards have finally sorted out their worst accounting and compliance troubles, and improved their feeble corporation governance, a new problem threatens to earn them -- especially in America -- the sort of nasty headlines that inevitably lead to heads rolling in the executive suite: data insecurity. Left, until now, to odd, low-level IT staff to put right, and seen as a concern only of data-rich industries such as banking, telecoms and air travel, information protection is now high on the boss's agenda in businesses of every variety.
Several massive leakages of customer and employee data this year - from organizations as diverse as Time Warner, the American defense contractor Science Applications International Corp and even the University of California, Berkeley -- have left managers hurriedly peering into their intricate IT systems and business processes in search of potential vulnerabilities.
"Data is becoming an asset which needs to be guarded as much as any other asset," says Haim Mendelson of Stanford University's business school. "The ability to guard customer data is the key to market value, which the board is responsible for on behalf of shareholders". Indeed, just as there is the concept of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), perhaps it is time for GASP, Generally Accepted Security Practices, suggested Eli Noam of New York's Columbia Business School. "Setting the proper investment level for security, redundancy, and recovery is a management issue, not a technical one," he says.
The mystery is that this should come as a surprise to any boss. Surely it should be obvious to the dimmest executive that trust, that most valuable of economic assets, is easily destroyed and hugely expensive to restore -- and that few things are more likely to destroy trust than a company letting sensitive personal data get into the wrong hands.
The current state of affairs may have been encouraged -- though not justified -- by the lack of legal penalty (in America, but not Europe) for data leakage. Until California recently passed a law, American firms did not have to tell anyone, even the victim, when data went astray. That may change fast: lots of proposed data-security legislation is now doing the rounds in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, the theft of information about some 40 million credit-card accounts in America, disclosed on June 17th, overshadowed a hugely important decision a day earlier by America's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that puts corporate America on notice that regulators will act if firms fail to provide adequate data security.
36. The statement "It never rains but it pours" is used to introduce
[A] the fierce business competition.
[B] the feeble boss-board relations.
[C] the threat from news reports.
[D] the severity of data leakage.
[答案] D
[解題思路]
一般文章開(kāi)頭的諺語(yǔ)都是用來(lái)引出文章的主要話題的。文章第一段的第二句話就進(jìn)一步指出了問(wèn)題所在"Just as bosses and boards have finally sorted out their worst accounting and compliance troubles, and improved their feeble corporation governance, a new problem threatens to earn them -- especially in America -- the sort of nasty headlines that inevitably lead to heads rolling in the executive suite: data insecurity"( 就在老板和董事會(huì)最終解決了令人頭疼的財(cái)務(wù)問(wèn)題和違紀(jì)問(wèn)題、改善了缺乏效率的公司管理之后，又一個(gè)新問(wèn)題(尤其是在美國(guó))將成為令高層們頭疼的頭條新聞：數(shù)據(jù)的不安全性)，即數(shù)據(jù)的不安全問(wèn)題，第二段第一句話"Several massive leakages of customer and employee data this year"(今年，幾起客戶和員工數(shù)據(jù)的重大泄密事件)則進(jìn)一步作了說(shuō)明，可見(jiàn)正確答案是D選項(xiàng)。這句諺語(yǔ)的意思是"雨不下則已，下則傾盆"。
[題目譯文]
"It never rains but it pours"這句話用來(lái)介紹
[A] 激烈的商業(yè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)
[B] 脆弱的老板-董事關(guān)系
[C] 新報(bào)道的威脅
[D] 數(shù)據(jù)泄漏的嚴(yán)峻性
37. According to Paragraph 2, some organizations check their systems to find out
[A] whether there is any weak point.
[B] what sort of data has been stolen.
[C] who is responsible for the leakage.
[D] how the potential spies can be located.
[答案] A
[解題思路]
本題對(duì)應(yīng)于文章第二段第二個(gè)破折號(hào)之后的內(nèi)容"have left managers hurriedly peering into their intricate IT systems and business processes in search of potential vulnerabilities"( 使得管理人員們匆忙去檢查其復(fù)雜的數(shù)據(jù)系統(tǒng)和商業(yè)流程，以便尋找潛在的弱點(diǎn))，原文的potential vulnerabilities對(duì)應(yīng)于A選項(xiàng)的weak point，因此是正確答案。B和C選項(xiàng)都與原文無(wú)關(guān)，D選項(xiàng)中的spies在文章中沒(méi)有涉及。
[題目譯文]
根據(jù)文章第二段，一些組織檢查的它們的系統(tǒng)是為了發(fā)現(xiàn)
[A] 是否存在弱點(diǎn)
[B] 哪種數(shù)據(jù)被盜
[C] 誰(shuí)應(yīng)該為泄漏負(fù)責(zé)
[D] 如何定位可能的間諜
38. In bringing up the concept of GASP the author is making the point that
[A] shareholders' interests should be properly attended to.
[B] information protection should be given due attention.
[C] businesses should enhance their level of accounting security.
[D] the market value of customer data should be emphasized.
[答案] B
[解題思路]
本題對(duì)應(yīng)于文章第三段的第三句話"Indeed, just as there is the concept of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), perhaps it is time for GASP, Generally Accepted Security Practices"( 事實(shí)上，正如存在公認(rèn)會(huì)計(jì)原則一樣，現(xiàn)在或許應(yīng)該是建立公認(rèn)安全措施的時(shí)候了)，可見(jiàn)GASP這個(gè)概念主要是用來(lái)提醒人們應(yīng)該對(duì)信息保護(hù)給與更多關(guān)注，因此B為正確選項(xiàng)。C選項(xiàng)顯然是與GAAP這個(gè)概念混淆了，是錯(cuò)誤答案。A和D選項(xiàng)對(duì)應(yīng)于該段第二句話"The ability to guard customer data is the key to market value, which the board is responsible for on behalf of shareholders"( 保護(hù)客戶數(shù)據(jù)的能力是市值的關(guān)鍵因素，這是董事會(huì)應(yīng)該為股東利益而承擔(dān)的責(zé)任)，但兩個(gè)選項(xiàng)都與原文的表述有出入。
[題目譯文]
作者引入GASP這個(gè)概念是為了說(shuō)明
[A] 股東的利益應(yīng)該得到適當(dāng)?shù)年P(guān)注
[B] 信息保護(hù)應(yīng)該得到應(yīng)有的重視
[C] 商業(yè)界應(yīng)該改進(jìn)他們的會(huì)計(jì)安全水準(zhǔn)
[D] 客戶數(shù)據(jù)的市場(chǎng)價(jià)值應(yīng)該得到強(qiáng)調(diào)
39. According to Paragraph 4, what puzzles the author is that some bosses fail to
[A] see the link between trust and data protection.
[B] perceive the sensitivity of personal data.
[C] realize the high cost of data restoration.
[D] appreciate the economic value of trust
[答案] A
[解題思路]
本題對(duì)應(yīng)于文章第四段，其中破折號(hào)后面的內(nèi)容指出"and that few things are more likely to destroy trust than a company letting sensitive personal data get into the wrong hands"( 很少有什么比一個(gè)公司讓敏感的個(gè)人數(shù)據(jù)落入不法人員之手更可能破壞公司的誠(chéng)信了)，這里強(qiáng)調(diào)了數(shù)據(jù)保護(hù)和公司信譽(yù)之間的密切關(guān)系，而很多老板們正是忽視了這層關(guān)系，因此正確答案為A。而B(niǎo)、C、D選項(xiàng)都只提到了data protection和trust中的一點(diǎn)，不具有概括性，因而是錯(cuò)誤答案。
[題目譯文]
根據(jù)文章第四段，讓作者感到意外的是一些老板們沒(méi)有
[A] 看到誠(chéng)信與數(shù)據(jù)保護(hù)之間的關(guān)系
[B] 看到個(gè)人數(shù)據(jù)的敏感性
[C] 意識(shí)到數(shù)據(jù)恢復(fù)的高成本
[D] 認(rèn)識(shí)到誠(chéng)信的經(jīng)濟(jì)價(jià)值
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